‘Overload shedding’ enters LESCO lexicon

[LRE]

‘Overload shedding’ enters LESCO lexicon

* Official says additional load shedding of 10 to 20 minutes meant to manage excess load
* Another official says system not being upgraded despite increased burden on transmission system

By Nauman Tasleem

LAHORE: ‘Overload shedding’ is the latest term introduced by the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) to express the management of excess load by switching off any one of the three main grid stations of the city for a few minutes, sources told Daily Times on Sunday.

They said that LESCO’s transmission system was weak and could not support the load after a certain level. Therefore, LESCO had no other option but to shut down electricity “for a while”. They said that under the term, whenever the load of a locality increased, the power was cut off. LESCO officials say that they were doing it to save the electricity transmission system of the city. “We don’t have any other option,” said a LESCO official, adding that if the electricity were not shut down, the entire system would collapse, and repairing it would take hours. “It is far better to terminate power supply for a few minutes than to have blackout for hours,” he said.

The official said that three main grid stations of 220KV were working in the city, which provided electricity to small 132KV grid stations installed in different parts of the city, including Kot Lakhpat, Green Town, Wapda Town, Iqbal Town, Ghaziabad and Multan Road. From these 132KV grid stations, the electricity is distributed to consumers, he said.

Managing load: The official said that the city had observed an increase in load shedding timings in the last week, while unscheduled load shedding had also increased. He said that load shedding was usually distributed hourly –like from 10am to 11am – but in the last few days, additional load shedding of 10 to 20 minutes was being done to manage load (overload shedding), which did not come under the heads of announced or unannounced load shedding. He, however, said that overload shedding of 30 to 40 minutes had also been done in many localities.

“Whenever the load of electricity increases in any part of the city, the grid station concerned is shut down, and there is no need to follow the load shedding timetable,” another LECSO official said. He said that because of the rise in temperature, the usage of electricity had increased, which had resulted in increased load shedding.

No upgrade: “Our transmission is very weak, as a petty amount has been invested on the repair of the distribution and transmission system in recent years,” the official said, adding that the use of split and window air conditioners had increased drastically in the last six years, which had put a lot of burden on the transmission system. “Not a single megawatt has been added in several years, nor had the system been upgraded to support the increased load,” he said.

The official said that the term ‘forced load shedding’ had also been introduced a few weeks ago. “In forced load shedding, the grid station concerned receives orders from the National Control Centre (NCC) in Islamabad. The NCC orders the grid station employees to shut down the grid station immediately,” he said.

LESCO Public Relations Deputy Director Muhammad Javed could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...008_pg13_1